(Eureka Springs, AR) -- One hundred seventy three days after four ordinary civilians armed with laptop computers hunkered down in a Eureka Springs living room to Google the subject, the first Domestic Partnership Registry in Arkansas became a reality today.

Even before the doors of Eureka City hall opened this morning, eleven couples--10 gay or lesbian and one straight--had lined up to be among the first Eurekans and the first Arkansans to have their relationships officially recognized by the city. Each couple paid the $35 fee, showed their ID, swore they were in a «relationship of mutual support, caring and commitment» and received a certificate signed by Mayor Dani Wilson and City Clerk MJ Sell.

What had begun on New Years Day 2007 had, six and a half months later, become law. Ordinance 2052 to be exact. It survived three votes by the city council and two ferocious attempts by an anti-gay minister to block it.

And the world did not come to an abrupt and catclysmic end, the eccentric resort town was not inundated with a flood of biblical proportions, marriage-as-we-know-it was not rendered null and void, and our seven-story concrete Jesus statue did not crumble (though some swear they saw it grin and wink).

Seismic sensors noted a slight temblor under the Victorian-era village, thought to be caused by all the fundamentalists shaking their heads and wringing their hands at the same time because democracy, not theocracy, had triumphed. Even here--especially here--on the buckle of the Bible Belt.

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